No shelter
In the last few hours, [Mariupol] city officials have told the BBC that a theatre in the city where more than 1,000 people had been sheltering – taking refuge against the incessant Russian shelling – came under bombardment.
And the continuing bombardment was making it impossible for rescue workers to reach the theatre.
We’ve just heard from the Russian defence ministry, they have denied that they struck this theatre. So again we’re left with who caused what, who is to blame. And in a city which is suffering.
If they did bombard the theatre that’s a war crime. Biden has just told reporters that Putin is a war criminal.
Civilian buildings where people are sheltering from the bombs, and oh yes also hospitals and the like.
Healthcare facilities are becoming a target of war, the World Health Organization has warned, as it says Ukraine’s health system is “teetering on the brink”.
The WHO has verified 43 attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Ukraine and 46 elsewhere in the world in other conflicts – the highest ever rate of attacks on healthcare, which are illegal under international law.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, says “unaccpetable” attacks on healthcare are “becoming part of the strategy and tactics of war”.
One war crime after another.
